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This weekend we visited a small community which economic value is based off of sustainable, educational and intercultural tourism which was inspiring. The entire community has ten families and eight children in the school. The community is located on the backside of Carara National Park and has special permission to use a trail they created in the Park.

After going on a guided hike, we learned how to process sugar and also learned the process for making cutting boards.

In the morning, we also helped milk the cows. Although, this community is thriving through tourism, it also meets many limitations, which we discussed with members of the community. First, animals from the park and the poor soil quality inhibit the community to participate in agriculture. This problem initially caused people from the town to move into the city. The families that remain in the town built all the infrastructure and EcoSur, a program for student groups and group trips to take advantage of when traveling. The families are looking to expand the visitors to students who want to practice Spanish and volunteer in the community. However, in the future, the eight children from El Sur might not stay to continue the progress.

This trip was an amazing experience for me. These people, with far fewer resources than I ever had were so driven to make their town economically successful while also maintaining remoteness and the people had no idea whether or not their plan was even going to be continued in the next generation. It was truly inspiring when I think about climate change, materialism and different crisis happening all around the world. Sometimes it seems as though the problems are too large to mitigate but like these community members, we have to try without knowing if it will work.

Location: El Sur, Costa RIca